Lausanne–Bern railway

Lausanne–Bern railway
An EW IV commuter train on the Grandfey Viaduct
Overview
Termini	Lausanne Bern
Technical
Line length	97.2 km (60.4 mi)
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Electrification	15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Route map km elev from Geneva and Biel 0.0 Lausanne 447 m to Brig 2.4 Pully-Nord 473 m Viaduct of Conversion (177 m) 4.0 La Conversion 500 m 5.8 Bossière 524 m 8.3 Grandvaux 565 m Grandvaux tunnel (392 m) Cornallaz tunnel (494 m) from Vevey 12.1 Puidoux 617 m 14.6 Moreillon 657 m TPF line from Bulle 20.6 Palézieux 669 m to Payerne 24.4 Oron 700 m 30.5 Vauderens 757 m old route until 2001 Vauderens Tunnel (1.975 m) old Vauderens Tunnel (921m) 35.4 Siviriez 737 m TPF line from Bulle 40.2 Romont FR 707 m 45.0 Villaz-St-Pierre 706 m 49.6 Chénens 722 m 52.4 Cottens FR 713 m 55.4 Neyruz FR 687 m 57.5 Rosé 668 m 60.4 Matran 643 m 62.1 Villars-sur-Glâne 640 m 66.0 Fribourg/Freiburg 629 m to Murten and to Yverdon Fribourg/Freiburg Poya 609 m Grandfey Viaduct (352 m) 72.2 Düdingen 596 m 75.5 Fillistorf 607 m 77.9 Schmitten FR 606 m Mühletal tunnel (399 m) 80.3 Wünnewil 588 m Flamatt tunnel (187 m) from Laupen 84.1 Flamatt 552 m Sense (75 m) 86.9 Thörishaus Dorf 575 m 88.2 Thörishaus Station 585 m 89.4 Oberwangen 575 m 91.0 Niederwangen 568 m 93.0 Bern Bümpliz Süd 562 m 94.1 Bern Europaplatz 562 m from Thun via Belp and from Schwarzenburg from Neuchâtel 94.9 Bern Weyermannshaus Donnerbühl tunnel (400 m) 97.2 Bern 540 m RBS line to Worblaufen and Worb to Thun and Lucerne to Olten and Biel Source: Swiss railway atlas

The Lausanne–Bern railway is a mainline railway in Switzerland. The first part of the line was opened in 1860 and the original line was completed on 4 September 1862. The line was built by the Swiss Central Railway and the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern Railway, which were taken over by the Swiss Federal Railways on its establishment in 1902.

History

The Canton of Fribourg delayed the construction of the line from Bern to Lausanne in a bid to have it run through the city of Fribourg rather than on flatter land further west; in 1857 the Swiss government, the canton of Vaud and the West Switzerland Company gave in, allowing construction to commence on the line. On 2 July 1860, the line opened from Bern to the northern end of the 352 metre-long Grandfey Viaduct being built over the Saane river in Balliswil, near Fribourg. The Bern–Thörishaus section was built by the Swiss Central Railway and the Thörishaus–Ballenwil section by the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern Railway (French: Chemin de fer Lausanne-Fribourg-Berne, LFB). It took another two years of hard work to complete the Grandfey Viaduct before the line from Fribourg and Lausanne was open to traffic. Two rail tracks were consistently open to traffic from Olten to Lausanne from 4 September 1862. The line was taken over by the Swiss Federal Railways on its establishment in 1902.

Operations

The Lausanne–Bern railway is an important part of the connection from Luzern and Zürich to Geneva. It serves both long-distance and local traffic.

The line between Bern and Fribourg is used by line 1 of the Bern S-Bahn. The line from Palézieux to Lausanne is to be used by line 2 and line 4 of the planned Léman Express.

An attempt is currently being made to reduce the traveling time of the InterCity trains between Lausanne and Bern to 55 minutes by using a tilt compensation system in order to be able to integrate Lausanne as a hub in the regular interval timetable.